The Thunder beat the defending champion Mavericks, the Lakers and the Spurs in the playoffs, meaning they did not draw an easy bracket and back into the Finals, but rather, climbed over the West's marquee franchises.

It's hard not to like the Thunder, who are led by a humble, down-to-earth star in Kevin Durant, and a likeable coach in Scott Brooks. Except, of course, for the Seattle thing, as noted in the Associated Press game story:

"The franchise will play for the NBA title for the first time since 1996, before relocating from Seattle."

The Thunder are the SuperSonics relocated, expect it doesn't feel a thing like it. Does anyone think Lenny Wilkens, Fred Brown, Jack Sikma, Gus Williams or Nate McMillan feel any pang of pride in the Thunder reaching the Finals? Of course not.

When owner Clay Bennett moved the team to OKC, he left the franchise's Sonics history in Seattle, where the retired numbers of those players, along with the Sonics' banners and trophies, still reside. Bennett's exit agreement with Seattle addresses the history issue, saying the hardware, team history (records, stats, etc.) and SuperSonics name would be given back to Seattle if the city gets a team.

The Seattle Times used the AP story on its website, and as you might imagine, the comments on it were lively. Those who expressed anger had three targets -- not only Bennett, but commissioner David Stern and Howard Schultz, the Starbucks magnate who sold the team to Bennett. My favorite comment was from BigDaddyBull, wrote:

If OKC wins the championship, the day they win should be an annual day
of repentance for Mr. Schultz. He should give free coffee to all
Starbucks customers EVERY year until a Championship comes back to
Seattle. Mr. Schultz, it's the least you can do for the customers/fans
that lined your wallet to allow you to purchase our beloved Sonics in
the first place.

Better be a venti, I would think.

At the very least, you hope Oklahoma City fans truly appreciate how lucky they have been. Seattle fans had to suffer through the losing seasons of the post-Nate McMillan era as the Sonics went 35-47 and 31-51 in the two seasons after McMillan moved down the I-5 to coach Portland.

Those seasons and an unbelievably lucky draft lottery result got the Sonics the No. 2 pick in 2007 with which they chose Durant. GM Sam Presti wasn't even hired yet when the ping-pong balls landed as they did. He took the job on June. 7, then three weeks later drafted Durant.

Durant won Rookie of the Year in 2007-08, the Sonics' final season in Seattle, but the team stunk, going 21-61. There was plenty of grumbling that Bennett was tanking the season so attendance would dwindle and he could justify relocating the team, but from a player-personnel standpoint, the losing did wonders, allowing the team to get the No. 3 pick in 2008 and grab Russell Westbrook.

In the first year in OKC, the Thunder went 23-59, but the thing was so new, so fresh, Oklahoma fans could accept it. They've won 50, 55 and 47 games since (the latter the equivalent of 58 wins in an 82-game season). OKC fans were handed a ready-made contender, the groundwork for which was built in Seattle.

Oklahoma City fans did earn some good karma by being excellent hosts for the Hornets, taking the franchise on in 2005-06 and '06-07 after it was displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

But that doesn't mean Seattle fans have to care or pay attention, and a lot didn't. FoxSports' Mike Mulvihill reports that Seattle's 4.8 TV rating for last night's OKC clincher ranked 48th among the major markets.

2. The Portland thing: The other major theme around here after OKC's win was about Durant and how he could be playing for the Blazers, who instead took Greg Oden with the No. 1 pick in 2007.

Yup, that thing again.

Listen: Franchises make bad draft decisions all the time. Sometimes players don't pan out. As scientific and thorough as draft analysis is these days, it still comes down to a taking a guess about a player. You can come back from bad drafts.

In 2008, Memphis took Kevin Love with the No. 5 pick, then immediately traded him to Minnesota for O.J. Mayo, the No. 3 pick. Think the Grizzlies regretted that one? The following year, the Grizzlies took Hasheem Thabeet at No. 2; the players taken after him were James Harden and Tyreke Evans (who even played at the University of Memphis).

The Grizzlies came back from those moves and figure to be among OKC's strongest challengers for the next few seasons.

Second-guessing about personnel moves is standard in the NBA. In Phoenix, the Arizona Republic's Paul Coro points out that the two probable finalists have key players the Suns could have had. They drafted Rajon Rondo in 2006, but traded him to Boston for Brian Grant (for cap room as he was about to retire). In 2007, they traded their 2008 first-round pick, Kurt Thomas and a 2010 first-round pick for a 2009 second-round pick, a move meant to clear Thomas' $8 million contract off their books to get under the luxury tax threshold. The Sonics used that 2008 pick on Serge Ibaka.

Personally, I think the Oden-Durant thing would have been forgotten if Brandon Roy had stayed healthy and played a nice, long career in Portland.

APWhat has two index fingers and gets the blame for the Heat's struggles? This guy.

The blame, of course, will go immediately to coach Erik Spoelstra. The Miami Herald's Barry Jackson reports that Spoelstra has already been the target of second-guessing, with many questioning why he didn't use the just-returned Chris Bosh in the fourth quarter of the Heat's Game 5 loss.

"I didn’t think it would necessarily be fair to him to throw him in with three minutes to go," said Spoelstra, a graduate of Jesuit High and the University of Portland.

Never mind that the Heat have not had Bosh until Game 5. If you took, say, Kevin Garnett out of the Celtics' roster or Harden out of OKC's, wouldn't those teams have been hard-pressed to even reach conference finals?4. The Fundamental question: After last night's game, you couldn't help but wonder if we hadn't watched Tim Duncan play for the last time.

At 36, Duncan is about to become an unrestricted free agent. He's been clear that he won't sign with another team, but it's hard to believe Spurs will pay him anywhere near the $21 million he got this season.

"The summer is going to be here, and it is what it is. I’ll figure it out
when I come to it. I haven’t even thought about it, and I really don’t
care. I’ll figure it out when it happens, just like everything else."

Coach Gregg Popovich carefully limited Duncan's minutes during the regular season, and Duncan was effective in the playoffs, averaging 17.4 points and 9.4 rebounds. But he looked a step slower and showed little explosiveness against the young, athletic Thunder.

It's going to be a tough call for Duncan and the Spurs, who clearly need to upgrade their front line.

Menino apparently didn't really think John Havlicek had suited up. Rather, it was just part of a long series of gaffes he's made when trying to talk sports, the Boston Globe's Steve Silva reports. In fact, the mayor called Kevin Garnett "K.J." during the same interview.

My favorite example is when he called the NBA commissioner "Donald Sterns."Note: The NBA High-5 will return next week.